Regions Financial (RF) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Regions Financial Corporation’s Quarterly Earnings Call. My name is Christine and I will be your operator for today’s call. I would like to remind everyone that all participants online have been placed to listen-only. At the end of the call, there will be a question and answer portion. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Dana Nolan to begin.

Dana Nolan

Thank you, Christine. Welcome to Regions’ second quarter 2023 earnings call. John and David will provide high-level commentary regarding the quarter. Earnings documents, which include our forward-looking statement disclaimer and non-GAAP information, are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. These disclosures cover our presentation materials, prepared comments and Q&A. I will now turn the call over to John.

John Turner

Thank you, Dana and good morning everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. Once again, Regions delivered another solid quarter, underscoring our commitment to generating consistent, sustainable long-term performance. We generated earnings of $556 million resulting in earnings per share of $0.59 and one of the best return on average tangible common equity ratios in our peer group at 24%.

Our consistent strong earnings performance has given the board confidence to increase the quarterly common stock dividend by 20%, which was officially reported in a press release earlier this week. Although some lingering economic uncertainty remains, we feel good about our ability to carry this momentum into the second half of the year. We continue to benefit from our strong and diverse balance sheet, robust liquidity position, and prudent credit risk management. Our proactive hedging strategies have positioned us for success in any interest rate environment and our granular deposit base and relationship-based banking approach continue to serve us well.

Overall, sentiment among our corporate customers remains relatively positive despite ongoing labor shortages, persistent inflationary pressure and slowly improving supply chain issues. In fact, most are continuing to forecast solid performance in 2023, although they are expecting modest declines from levels experienced in 2022. We remain committed to serving our customers while maintaining our focus on risk-adjusted returns. We are being judicious with capital, preserving it for our best clients and relationships. Year-to-date, the corporate bank has grown loans 2%, in line with our expectations with the vast majority of this growth coming from existing customers.